Monthly Archives: July 2017

One of the most anticipated breweries to open in the suburbs is More Brewing Co. located in Villa Park, Il. Head Brewer Shaun Berns won a GABF Gold Medal for his chocolate stout while at Ram Brewing, and now he brings his talents to an independent brewery that offers great beers and great food.
This week, the Brit sits down with Shaun after a hard day’s brewing, and we sip a couple of brews and chat about the journey to open the new location, brewing his first beers while construction was going on, and he has an exclusive announcement about their first bottle series.

Shaun chats on other topics such as beer takeovers, pricing product, and their new canning line which is being installed as we spoke. Head over to More and find out for yourself why this brewery holds much promise for the craft beer drinker!

We also get Shaun’s opinion for an Instant Brew Review, which turned out to be a little longer that the word ‘instant’ suggests, as Sonny, one of the owners joins us to get in on the tasting. Our brew for this is Sierra Nevada’s Barrel-Aged series, Trip in the Woods, called Islay Fog, a salted caramel scotch-style ale.

This week, the Brit heads down to Willowbrook, IL, and one of 3 breweries that declared the taps open last weekend. Black Horizon Brewing Co. is the passion of three friends, Alex Stankus, Kevin Baldus, and Charles St. Clair. Their space off route 83 in Willowbrook, is large enough for expansion, and plenty of parties! Their initial offerings cover 8 different styles, and from what this consumer could taste, all were spot on and worth trying each and every one. In this show, we talk with Kevin Baldus, who had just finished his equipment cleaning for the day and still in his wellies, and find out some background on their new endeavor. BHBC is well worth a visit we say.

During a week when Chicago was hit hard by rains and flooding, The Brit braved the elements and headed up to the northern suburb of Mundelein, and sat down with owner and brewer, Bruce Dir for a beer and a chat. Tighthead Brewing is one of those breweries who has been open since 2011 and therefore qualifies as well-established and solid. We first visited Tighthead after they had been open for about a year, and technical difficulties resulted in a somewhat one-sided stereo recording! This time round, we made sure the recording turned out a little better! We taste some of their brews while we chat, and we talk about how the brewery has matured and settled over the years, and also consider beer styles and pubs. It’s just like sitting down for a beer with a friend – thanks Bruce!

This week we pull out a number of brews collected from across several states, ones which which we think could be everyday, very drinkable beers. We visit Colorado, Ohio, North Carolina, and of course we had to include one from Illinois. Joining Phil this week is Chuck Fort, assistant brewer at Church Street Brewing, who now seems to have taken over the reins from Mark as our resident smarty-pants and BJCP judge! John Kaworksi from John’s Tavern comes by for our last 2 brews.